Bruins-Rangers Live Blog: New York Beats Boston In Shootout

BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 19: Milan Lucic #17 of the Boston Bruins yells at members of the New York Rangers before being penalized in the third period during the season opener game on January 19, 2013 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)Milan Lucic (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

The B’s are 2-0 in shootouts this season, beating Winnipeg and New Jersey on home ice. This will be the Rangers’ first shootout of the season.

Overtime, 6.5, 3-3: It’s been an incredibly exciting overtime period, but both goalies have stood tall. The Bruins have to win a faceoff in their own zone in order to force OT.

Overtime, 3:45, 3-3: After an icing, the Bruins will have an offensive zone draw.

End of regulation, 3-3: We are heading to overtime.

The Rangers are more than a little bit shell-shocked, so we’ll see how they come out to start overtime.

Third period, 42.3, 3-3: Wow! I didn’t think the Bruins had a chance, but with Rask on the bench, the Bruins score late to tie this one up.

A Patrice Bergeron shot from close range was blocked in front of the net by McDonagh, and Marchand roofed the loose puck to tie this one up. This place is now bumping, and if you left early, you made a mistake tonight.

Third period, 1:14, 3-2 Rangers: With an offensive zone faceoff, Tuukka Rask is on the bench.

Third period, 1:31, 3-2 Rangers: All Nathan Horton does is score big goals. It’s yet to be determined if this one proves to be a huge one, but nevertheless, Horton scored on a rebound to cut the lead to one late in the third.

Third period, 2:40, 3-1 Rangers: Time is running out for the Bruins. It’s going to take a minor miracle at this point.

Third period, 6:33, 3-1 Rangers: It’s still 3-1, and a Rangers fan in section 310 getting food thrown at him is the most action I’ve seen in the past few minutes. The B’s are running out of time.

Third period, 11:16, 3-1 Rangers: The Bruins are still alive.

A Dennis Seidenberg shot gets tipped by Lucic, and David Krejci buries the bouncing puck with a backhand into the net to get the Bruins on the board.

In a comedic twist, the goal came exactly one second after the power play ended, meaning the Bruins are still 0-for-4 on the night. Just another example of stats not always telling the story.

Third period, 13:17, 3-0 Rangers: Well, if the Bruins are to have a chance in this one, they’re going to need to wake up the power play. Milan Lucic did a good job of laying the body on Rick Nash behind the Rangers’ net, and Nash’s frustrations led to him taking a hooking penalty.

The Bruins did nearly score with a big old mess in front of the net on the delayed call, but Lundqvist covered it up. Now, the B’s power play needs to generate something if Boston is to have a chance in this one. They’re already 0-for-3.

Third period, 17:53, 3-0 Rangers: The Bruins killed off the two-man advantage, but shortly after it ended, Anton Stralman carried a puck through the neutral zone shot a somewhat weak wrist shot on net. The puck looked like it trickled through the legs of Tuukka Rask. I’m not sure what happened for Rask not to make that save, but either way, the Rangers have built a lead that looks insurmountable at this point.

Third period, 20:00, 2-0 Rangers: We’re under way. Boston has a lot of work to do.

End of second period, 2-0 Rangers: Well, things went pretty good for the Bruins on the power play, and then pretty bad. The pretty good was a breakaway by Patrice Bergeron. He couldn’t bury it though, and then Brad Marchand as penalized for cross-checking to give the Rangers a two-man advantage.

There was less than 15 seconds left to start that two-man advantage, but the Rangers will have 1:03 of a two-man advantage to begin the third.

Second period, :58, 2-0 Rangers: Milan Lucic goes to the box for high-sticking Ryan McDonagh in the face.

Second period, 3:51, 2-0 Rangers: I’ll tell you what — these Bruins are putting on quite a fight. They’re winning the puck battles, they’re controlling the puck in the offensive end, and they’re getting a lot of rubber on net. The Rangers are simply doing a typically solid job of blocking passing lanes and blocking shots, and Lundqvist hasn’t been too bad with 22 saves already. He just got a little help from his crossbar on a Johnny Boychuk slapper, too.

I do think the Bruins will break through tonight, but it’s not going to be easy to score one, let alone two.

Second period, 8:51, 2-0 Rangers: And the Bruins’ power play is now 0-for-3. Their best chance there came on a Tyler Seguin slap shot from the blue line. Horton was set up in front for the tip, and it sounded like he got a piece of it, but Lundqvist was there for the stop. He now has 21 saves on the net, but he really hasn’t been tested since Krejci’s shot in the opening 35 seconds.

The Bruins’ power play success rate is now 9.5 percent, same as the Rangers.

Second period, 11:29, 2-0 Rangers: Just 14 seconds after the goal, Marc Staal goes to the box for interference. The B’s go back on the power play, which did generate some decent shots last time out.

Second period, 11:43, 2-0 Rangers: A terrible neutral zone pass by Milan Lucic gets intercepted near the blue line, and Derek Stepan carried the puck into the Bruins’ zone on a 2-on-1. Chara took away the passing line and Stepan fired on net, beating Rask and giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead. There wasn’t much fancy about that one — Rask just got beat.

Second period, 13:50, 1-0 Rangers: The Bruins were able to get a pair of Zdeno Chara one-timers, but Lundqvist stopped both. B’s get nada on the power play.

Second period, 15:50, 1-0 Rangers: The B’s head back to the power play, which is at 10 percent on the season, after the Rangers have too many men on the ice.

Second period, 18:00, 1-0 Rangers: Milan Lucic came out of the room fired up, delivering a couple of heavy body checks during his 90-second shift to start the period.

Second period, 20:00, 1-0 Rangers: We’re under way in the second.

End of first period, 1-0 Rangers: The Bruins head into the room trailing 1-0, but they really controlled the pace of that first period and generated the better chances. It was just one incredible play by Nash which made the difference.

The Bruins lead in shots 11 to eight, but Lundqvist is looking like his usual excellent self thus far.

Adam McQuaid also will find himself on those pregame montages for a long time for his massive hit on Darroll Powe about eight minutes into the period. Powe was in a race for a puck along the end boards with McQauid, but Powe decided to pull up a couple of feet short of the boards, perhaps to try to brace himself for contact. It turned out to be a pretty horrible strategy, because McQuaid hit Powe so hard that the Rangers forward was left holding a piece of his shattered stick as he painfully made his way to the bench.

First period, 3:13, 1-0 Rangers: Rich Peverley was a one-man penalty-killing machine on that one. He had some impressive work in the Rangers’ end to keep the puck away from New York, and he really should have drawn a high-sticking penalty when a Rangers stick very clearly smacked him in the side of the head. Regardless, the B’s killed the penalty.

First period, 5:13, 1-0 Rangers: Adam McQuaid tries to get into a post-whistle scrum with Chris Kreider but before anything happens, he gets whistled for roughing. That’s pretty weak.

First period, 9:23, 1-0 Rangers: Rick Nash is just incredible. The powerful forward skated toward the net and got inside of Andrew Ference before falling off balance. He wasn’t affected though, as from the ice he was able to dish it out to Carl Hagelin, who easily deposited the puck into the open net (Rask was probably not expecting Nash to pass it while lying on the ice).

First period, 12:58: As Jack Edwards likes to say on NESN, guilt is sometimes the strongest motivator, and that appeared to be the case with Seguin after he got out of the box. He had some hop in his step and created a couple of scoring opportunities. It ended with Seguin one-timing a pass from Marchand from close range, but Lundqvist was up to the task.

First period, 13:41: The Rangers get nothing at all on their PP, and both teams start out 0-for-1 tonight with the man advantage.

First period, 16:15: And, yup, nothing there, as the Bruins commit a penalty of their own on the power play. Seguin goes to the box for hooking, and the B’s start out the night 0-for-1 on the power play after just 41 seconds on the man advantage.

First period, 16:57: Darroll Powe panicked and flicked the puck over the glass in the Rangers’ end, so the Bruins will get the first power play of the night. These are two of the worst power plays in the league, so we’re not expecting much tonight.

First period, 18:33: Both Rask and Lundqvist were tested early with some close bids in the opening 35 seconds. They turned aside shots from Rick Nash and David Krejci, respectively, though, to keep it scoreless early.

First period, 20:00: Rene Rancourt performed a rousing rendition of the national anthem for the 5 millionth time, and we are under way at the Garden.

7:32 p.m.: The puck should drop soon. Here are your starting lineups.

Rangers

Carl Haegelin-Derek Stepan-Rick Nash

Dan Girardi-Ryan McDonagh

Henrik Lundqvist

Bruins

Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton

Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk

Tuukka Rask

7:07 p.m.: The lines are indeed back to “normal,” with Patrice Bergeron centering Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin, and David Krejci centering Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton.

Lundqvist is arguably the best goalie on the planet (for my money he is, but I’d listen to a debate), but it’s Rask with the better numbers this season. Rask has a 1.96 GAA and .922 save percentage to go with his 6-1-1 record, while Lundqvist’s posted a 2.44 GAA and .911 save percentage for a 5-5-0 record.

6:58 p.m.: Admittedly, the 7:30 p.m. start time has my timing a little off. I thought warmups would’ve started by now. Alas, we wait.

6:46 p.m.: Traffic was a nightmare getting into the Garden, but you don’t care about that. You care about hockey, and it’s almost time for some of that.

The ice is ready, and warmups will start soon. I’ll keep an eye on Bruins lines to see if Seguin is with Marchand and Bergeron and report back after line rushes.

6:30 p.m.: It seems pretty crazy, because the season feels like it just started, but the Rangers are in Boston tonight for their final time of the regular season.

While we can all hope that the Rangers and Bruins meet again in the postseason (and many of us clearly do), but this very well could be the final meeting between the Bruins and Rangers this season.

The Bruins, at 8-1-1, are off to their best start in franchise history. They’ve earned three out of a possible four points against the Rangers this season, most recently battling back from a two-goal deficit to force overtime. In that OT, however, Marian Gaborik capped off his hat trick by batting in his own rebound out of mid-air for the game-winner.

The B’s won the first matchup on the opening night of the season. In that one, the Rangers were only able to fire 21 shots on net, and Tuukka Rask stopped 20 of them in the 3-1 Bruins win. Interestingly, five different Bruins have scored the team’s six goals against the Rangers this season.

For tonight, we expect to see Tuukka Rask in net for Boston, and if the morning skate was any indication, we’ll be seeing Tyler Seguin back alongside his usual linemates Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron.

We’ll have all the updates right here in the live blog, from the pregame warmups till the final horn, so stick with us throughout the night.